National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) on Wednesday approved 41 paisa increase in tariff of Distribution Companies (Discos) for October 2018 under monthly Fuel Component Adjustment (FCA) against the request of 64.29 paisa per unit. The decision was taken by a two member bench of Nepra headed by its Chairman, Brigadier Tariq Saddozai (retired) and with assistance of Member Balochistan/ Vice Chairman, Rehmat Ullah Baloch. The representatives of CPPA-G, NTDC and NPCC were also present in the meeting to respond to questions raised by the technical team of Nepra.
CPPA-G, in its tariff petition, stated that in October 2018, hydel generation was recorded at 2,390 GWh which was 24.96 per cent of total generation. The CPPA claims that no electricity was generated on High Speed Diesel (HSD) in October 2018. The CPPA purchased 1754.35 GWh electricity produced on Residual Fuel Oil (RFO), 7.88 per cent of total generation at a cost of Rs 14.4292 per unit at a total cost of Rs 10.884 billion, whereas the cost of electricity generated by using indigenous gas was Rs 5.3974 per unit and its total share in electricity generation was 1,912 GWh accounting for 19.98 per cent of total generation during the entire month.
The electricity generated from RLNG was 2,194 GWh making it 22.92 per cent of total generation at a cost of Rs 9.8604 per unit. The coal-fired power generation was 1,115.77 GWh, 11.65 per cent of total generation at a cost of Rs 6.3820 per unit. Nuclear power plants generated 887.67 .65 GWh of electricity at a rate of Rs 0.9750 per unit, cheapest amongst all fuels. The electricity imported from Iran was 45.95 GWh at a price of Rs 11.57 per unit; and 68.56 GWh was generated through bagasse at a cost of Rs 6.2089 and 94.05 GWh and 61.44 GWh was purchased from wind and solar, respectively.
According to CPPA-G's petition, total energy generated in October 2018 was 9,573.87 GWh at a total price of Rs 52.128 billion which comes to Rs 5.4448 per unit whereas net delivered units to Discos were 9,308.95 GWh at a cost of 54.732 billion, which is Rs 5.8795 per unit.
Out of total delivered electricity, losses stood at 2.66 per cent (364.08 GWh at a cost of Rs 0.1627 per unit). CPPA-G also sold 10.42 GWh to Independent Power Producers (IPPs) at a total price of Rs 364 million which comes to Rs 34.9385 per unit.
CPPA-G generated around 754.352 GWh from furnace oil based plants at a cost of Rs 10.885 billion i.e. FCC of Rs 15.43/kWh. However, coal based power plants i.e. Port Qasim and Sahiwal coal and RLNG based power plants i.e. Balloki and Haveli Bahadar Shah were not fully utilized.
"Had the units generated on furnace oil be generated from coal and RLNG based power plants, the total fuel cost for such units would have been around Rs 5.3 billion, resulting in reduction in total fuel cost by around Rs 5.5 billion i.e. 59 paisa per unit," sources stated.
The Chairman Nepra sought reasons for maximizing use of furnace oil in October, observing that the reduction in cost of generation could have been transferred to the consumers as relief.
The concerned official provided justification for lower use of coal, gas and LNG, adding that there were also outages in Port Qasim Coal-fired power plants; and added that there was also disruption in supply of RLNG.
Nepra's technical team revealed that CPPA-G has not provided working paper on Haveli Bahadar Shah, Saif Power Plant and Reshama Power Plant.
The chairman directed the officials of Nepra to send questions to NPCC about less usage of coal, gas and RLNG and requested that the latter responds in writing.
Nepra officials further stated that as per notified determination of July 27, 2017, NTDCL is allowed T&T losses of 2.80 per cent only at 500 KV and 200 KV network. CPPA-G claimed losses of 2.66 per cent whereas the data provided by NTDCL, shows T&T losses of 302.GWh i.e. 3.15 per cent during October 2018. Reported accumulative losses till October 2018 worked out as 2.88 per cent which are higher than the allowed threshold of 2.80 per cent. Accordingly, to work out the FCA for October 2018, losses up to 2.80 per cent were considered. Nepra allowed adjustment of Rs 248 million to CPPA-G against request of Rs 2.771 billion.
After detailed discussions, Nepra accorded provisional approval of 41 paisa increase in tariff against demand of 61.29 paisa on the basis of actual fuel charge component of Rs 5.601 per unit against reference fuel charge component of Rs 5.2366 per unit.
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